Sony Has Closed Evolution Studios

End of an era.

Aran Suddi, 9 months ago, 46 comments.

Well this news seems to have come from out of nowhere but Sony has confirmed to Gamesindustry.biz that it is closing down Evolution Studios, whose latest game was Driveclub. The studio itself was first formed in 1999, and released World Rally Championship on PS2 on 2001. This was followed by four more WRC games on that platform before Evolution moved onto the Motorstorm series on PS3 and Vita.

Those of you who were waiting for a Driveclub 2 or a new Motorstorm will be disappointed, because unless Sony brings in another studio to work on those IPs they look to be over. Sony’s full statement is below.

Regular reviews take place throughout SCE Worldwide Studios, ensuring that the resources that we have in such a competitive landscape can create and produce high quality, innovative and commercially viable projects.

As part of this process we have reviewed and assessed all current projects and plans for the short and medium term and have decided to make some changes to the European studios structure.

As a result, it has been decided that Evolution Studio will close.

It is regrettable that this decision will lead to compulsory redundancies. We accept that this decision will mean that we risk losing high calibre staff but by focusing on other Studios that already have exciting new projects in development we believe we will be in a stronger position going forward and able to offer the best possible content of the highest quality for our consumers.

Where possible we will try to reallocate people onto other projects. If appropriate opportunities are not possible within the company, we will assist staff in any way we can, including speaking with local employers and with other development companies.

Evolution has been an important part of SCE Worldwide Studios for over 10 years – working on ground-breaking racing titles like WRC, Motorstorm and DRIVECLUB.

This decision should not take anything away from the great work that Evolution has produced.

Update: Paul Rustchynsky, now formerly of Evolution has released a small statement on Twitter.

That’s really rubbish. Motorstorm Pacific Rift is my favourite racing game of all time.
They should have carried that on instead of going for their ‘dream project’ and kind of sh*tting the bed in the process.

Good finances are one thing, closing such popular studios is another! This is such a shame, Evo have put out absolutely stellar games, I hope those guys can enjoy their downtime and move on to bigger and better things. Booo Sony, thumbs down, angry emoji, growly noise and a fart in their general direction!

When fiscal success is tied to brand recognition, it seems strange to shutter two studios that produce iconic racing titles synonymous with Playstation. Wipeout needs no explanation, but Motorstorm was/is an excellent series and held a special place for early PS3 owners as THE showcase game for friends and sheer fun.

Driveclub, whilst a new IP, had rightfully earned back any respect it may have lost on launch, and in fact far exceeded what most people expected. With such a good standing hard earned it seems crazy to bin the IP at time when VR is positioned to launch and racing games are a PERFECT match.

Nooooooo i absolutely love the Motorstorm series and was really hoping for a PS4 release,also really enjoy my time with Driveclub beautiful game with amazing support still have loads to get through,sad times hopefully Motorstorm lives on in some way and the staff find employment swiftly :(

“Driveclub will live on under the care of the awesome team at Sony and we hope it will continue to thrive in their safe hands and with support from all of you, the players, our community”
Jamie Brayshaw’s Twitter (community manager at Evo)

Whilst it is a tad sad the simple fact was Driveclub was an absolute mess when first released…who was to blame for that?

Did Sony push Evolution to release it when Evolution said it wasn’t ready or did Evolution say it was ready and then realize how butchered it was?

I feel for the guys who will lose their jobs but the blame as to what happened to Driveclub’s launch has to land somewhere…if only this served as a reminder to all other studios to stop releasing half-completed games that require several patches just to get them in a working state!

Shall be interesting to see if No Mans Sky, Mirrors Edge Catalyst & Uncharted 4 require massive amount of patches given that they were all delayed so they could “polish” them up…I suspect not.

In today’s market if you release a shoddy game expect to have dire consequences…pity as I am not convinced the blame lies with Evolution and after many patches it is an excellent racer!

Because i recall a lot of people making a lot of noise when MS made Tomb Raider 2 a timed exclusive. Not what i would call a free pass and there has been games on both platforms that have beeen torn apart for needing giant patches.

Again, correct. There were just some hiccups for a couple of weeks. It wasn’t like half the online features had to be disabled for an extended period of time and the PS+ version pulled from the store for several months. Oh wait.

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